Andrew Hunt

Mount Cricket Club’s Abdul Ravat has been named runner-up in the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) ‘Heartbeat of the Club’ category at a prestigious awards ceremony held at Lord’s Cricket Ground.

Abdul lifted the Yorkshire OSCA (Outstanding Services to Cricket Award) in the same category at Headingley Stadium this summer and was then shortlisted for the national award by the ECB.

Although narrowly missing out at Lord’s, Abdul was delighted that his nomination had provided a wonderful opportunity to highlight the good work being done with the community at Mount.

The club was established in 1976 by two enthusiastic young cricketers Hanif Mayet – who remains their chairman - and the late Farid Karolia.

Last year, Mount played a special inter-faith T20 match at Headingley against St Peter’s XI of the Pontifical Council for Culture, the Vatican’s official cricket team made up of Rome-based priests and seminarians.

Abdul was joined at the London awards ceremony by Ali Akbor, chief executive of Leeds-based Unity Homes and Enterprise, who submitted his nomination.

Ali said: “It was a great privilege to visit the spiritual home of cricket and have the chance to meet some of the country’s best known cricketing names including fast bowler Stuart Broad, England one-day captain Eoin Morgan and Mike Gatting, chairman of the MCC’s World Cricket Committee.

“It was a pleasure to celebrate Abdul’s achievement. His commitment to promoting and delivering a more cohesive society is what makes him such a vital member of our board. His boundless energy and ability to spread positivity though his ever-growing range of voluntary activities are a great credit to him. His OSCA recognition is very well deserved.”

Yorkshire chief executive Mark Arthur added: “I am absolutely delighted that the outstanding community work of Abdul in Batley, has been recognised nationally. To win the award in Yorkshire was an achievement in itself as we have so many fantastic volunteers within our 780 cricket clubs.”

Mount chairman Hanif Mayet said: “Both Mount and Unity exists to serve their communities for 40 and 30 years respectively. I never believed back in 1976, that the work of our volunteers would be recognised at the highest level.”